SFTP/FTP Sync (maintained)

A maintained, up-to-date fork of the popular VS Code SFTP extension — and it works on VS Code 1.123+ / Node 24, where the older versions crash.

Sync files between a local folder and a remote server over SFTP/SSH or FTP/FTPS: upload on save, download, two-way sync, a remote file explorer, multiple profiles and more.

Maintained by @fibanez7. Fork lineage: liximomo → Natizyskunk → this fork. MIT licensed — thanks to both for the original work.

Why this fork?

The widely-installed SFTP extensions stopped working on recent VS Code: on VS Code 1.123+ (which ships Node 24 via Electron) opening or saving a file over SFTP crashed with TypeError: isDate is not a function. Upstream is slow to update. This fork keeps it alive.

Fixed in v1.17.0

It's a drop-in replacement — your existing .vscode/sftp.json keeps working unchanged.

Table of contents

• Features
• Install
• Quick start
• Commands
• Configuration reference
  • Connection
  • SFTP authentication
  • FTP / FTPS
  • Transfer behavior
  • Sync behavior
  • Ignoring files
  • Remote Explorer options
  • Advanced
• Profiles
• Multiple contexts
• Connection hopping (jump host)
• Config from User Settings (remote-fs)
• VS Code settings
• Remote Explorer
• Debugging
• FAQ
• Credits & license

Features

• 📤 Upload files/folders/whole project — manually or automatically on save.
• 📥 Download files/folders/project from the server.
• 🔁 Sync Local→Remote, Remote→Local, or both directions.
• 🔍 Diff a local file against its remote version.
• 🗂️ Remote Explorer — browse, open, create and delete remote files from a sidebar.
• 👀 File watcher — react to external file changes.
• 👥 Multiple profiles (e.g. dev/prod) with one-click switching.
• 🪝 Connection hopping through one or more jump hosts.
• 🔑 Password, private key, SSH agent, and keyboard-interactive (2FA) auth.
• 🧩 Multiple contexts — map different local folders to different servers.
• 📄 Atomic / temp-file uploads to avoid serving half-written files.

Install

1. Open Extensions (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + X).
2. Uninstall any other SFTP extension to avoid duplicate commands.
3. Install SFTP/FTP Sync (maintained) from the Marketplace, or grab the .vsix from Releases and use ··· → Install from VSIX….
4. Reload VS Code.

Quick start

1. Open the local folder you want to sync.

2. Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + P → SFTP: Config. This creates .vscode/sftp.json.

3. Edit it with your server details:

   {
     "name": "My Server",
     "host": "192.168.0.10",
     "protocol": "sftp",          // "sftp" (default) or "ftp"
     "port": 22,
     "username": "user",
     "password": "secret",        // optional — omit to be prompted
     "remotePath": "/var/www/project",
     "uploadOnSave": true          // auto-upload every time you save
   }
   

4. Save it. To pull an existing project down first, run SFTP: Download Project.

5. Edit locally — with uploadOnSave: true, every save syncs to the server.

Tip: leave password out and you'll be prompted securely instead of storing it in plain text. For keys, use privateKeyPath (see below).

Commands

Open the Command Palette (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + P) and type SFTP, or right-click files/folders in the Explorer. Keybinding: Ctrl + Alt + U = Upload Changed Files.

Transfer

Sync

Browse & compare

Remote management

Configuration reference

All settings live in .vscode/sftp.json. Below is every available option.

Connection

SFTP authentication

FTP / FTPS

Transfer behavior

Sync behavior

Configure the Sync commands via syncOption:

Ignoring files

Remote Explorer options

Advanced

context and watcher are only valid at the root level.

Profiles

Define environments and switch between them with SFTP: Set Profile:

{
  "username": "user",
  "password": "secret",
  "remotePath": "/remote/workspace/a",
  "watcher": {
    "files": "dist/*.{js,css}",
    "autoUpload": false,
    "autoDelete": false
  },
  "profiles": {
    "dev":  { "host": "dev-host",  "remotePath": "/dev",  "uploadOnSave": true },
    "prod": { "host": "prod-host", "remotePath": "/prod" }
  },
  "defaultProfile": "dev"
}

Multiple contexts

Map different local folders to different servers. Each context must be unique, and name is required:

[
  {
    "name": "build",
    "context": "project/build",
    "host": "host", "username": "user", "password": "secret",
    "remotePath": "/remote/project/build"
  },
  {
    "name": "src",
    "context": "project/src",
    "host": "host", "username": "user", "password": "secret",
    "remotePath": "/remote/project/src"
  }
]

Connection hopping (jump host)

Reach a target server through one or more SSH proxies. (Variable substitution is not supported inside a hop config.)

Single hop — local → hop → target:

{
  "name": "target",
  "remotePath": "/path/in/target",

  "host": "hopHost",
  "username": "hopUser",
  "privateKeyPath": "/Users/me/.ssh/id_rsa",   // key lives on the local machine

  "hop": {
    "host": "targetHost",
    "username": "targetUser",
    "privateKeyPath": "/Users/hopUser/.ssh/id_rsa"  // key lives on the hop
  }
}

Multiple hops — local → hopA → hopB → target: pass hop as an array, each entry's key living on the previous host.

Config from User Settings (remote-fs)

Reuse a connection defined for remote-fs via the remote key.

User Settings:

"remotefs.remote": {
  "dev": { "scheme": "sftp", "host": "host", "username": "user", "rootPath": "/path/to/somewhere" }
}

sftp.json:

{
  "remote": "dev",
  "remotePath": "/home/xx/",
  "uploadOnSave": false
}

VS Code settings

Set these in your User/Workspace Settings (not sftp.json):

Remote Explorer

Browse the server from a dedicated sidebar:

1. Run View: Show SFTP, or click the SFTP icon in the Activity Bar.
2. Files open read-only by default — run SFTP: Edit in Local to edit one locally.
3. Multi-select with Ctrl/Shift to download/upload several items at once.

After deleting a file, manually refresh the parent folder if the view doesn't update.

Debugging

1. Open Settings → set sftp.debug to true → reload VS Code.
2. View logs in View → Output → sftp.

When reporting an issue, this log (with secrets removed) is the most useful thing to include.

FAQ

See FAQ.md.

Credits & license

Released under the MIT License. This is a maintained fork — full credit to the original authors:

• liximomo — original extension.
• Natizyskunk — long-running maintained fork this one continues.

Issues and pull requests welcome: https://github.com/fibanez7/vscode-sftp/issues